SHOPPERS have cleared the shelves of Ted Baker closing sales after clothes, accessories and beauty goodies were monumentally slashed in price. It was announced on Monday that the iconic Nineties brand’s remaining 31 stores in the UK were set to close by the end of play on Tuesday. The move, which has put more than 500 jobs at risk, saw shoppers flocking to their local store for some last-minute bargains .
Ted Baker’s UK arm entered administration back in March after racking up losses. It went on to shut 15 shops, resulting in about 245 British staff being made redundant. However, it is now understood that the fashion giant’s remaining stores have all closed their doors.
read more on fashion sales The brand has stores in the US, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, but their fate has not been revealed. And while shoppers are gutted to see the iconic brand leave the high-street, many bagged serious bargains for up to 90% cheaper. One woman took to TikTok yesterday to give an insight into the closing sale carnage.
The seven second clip showed rails of summer dresses dropped from £159 to £25, as well as winter gowns slashed by 80% off. Most read in Fabulous Crowds of shoppers could be seen rummaging through tables and rails of discounted clothes. Some areas had piles of strewn dresses, and in others, fashion fans were trying on discounted items on the shop floor.
One shopper on X, formerly Twitter, said he was able to pick up a brown knitted cardigan worth £120 for £36, as well as a pair of dark grey trousers for £30, down from £100. Even Ted Baker branded clothing hangers were up for sale. Some shoppers spotted packs of 20 wooden ones on offer for just £3.
Customers could also buy ornaments which once decorated the store, some social media reports claim. EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline. The Sun's business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping. Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing. Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns. Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent. In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few. What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places. That includes a large red dog for £60 and a small waving cat for £10. Customers cannot make purchases from Ted Baker 's website as the firm is no longer accepting online orders.
READ MORE SUN STORIES A notice on the site reads: "Goodbye for now. "We are not taking orders right now.".
